WorldcrunchThe oldest newspaper in Colombia, El Espectador was founded in 1887. The national daily newspaper has historically taken a firm stance against drug trafficking and in defense of freedom of the press. In 1986, the director of El Espectador was assassinated by gunmen hired by Pablo Escobar. The majority share-holder of the paper is Julio Mario Santo Domingo, a Colombian businessman named by Forbes magazine as one of the wealthiest men in the world in 2011.
-OpEd- BOGOTA — Once upon a time our cities had physical spaces and institutions that allowed people of different social groups to mix and interact, at least to a degree. Downtown cafés attracted politicians, intellectuals, traders and students. Churches — back when people still attended mass in significant numbers — were another place where people […]
Earning cash and starting a business are no longer frowned upon on the island nation, as the rapprochement with the U.S. sets the stage for a different kind of Cuban economy.
Modern life, with its rules and material rewards, has robbed people of the most basic sense of happiness. What do we have to lose by ridding ourselves of so many imposed ideas?
-Analysis- BOGOTA — Cuba, in its effort to loosen the economy and move toward a partially free market system, may be borrowing a page from the history of another communist country, Vietnam. Starting in 1986, Vietnam implemented a series of economic reforms known collectively as Doi Moi. The changes were inspired by the industrialization drive […]
He may be a genius, but the legendary physicist is using his renown to hock an outlandish idea that humans must go to space to survive, a notion that only betrays Hawking’s own arrogance.
Lula da Silva spent liberally when the Brazilian economy was booming, leaving Dilma Rousseff to face the deferred impact of the global recession. His personal popularity aside, the country’s current woes are largely his fault.
Obama’s executive order slapping sanctions on Venezuelan officials is ostensibly in defense of liberty. But it could just as well be another of a long line of aggressive American interventions.
There are countless precedents for acts of cultural vandalism like ISIS perpetrated against the Mosul museum. A society’s art and cultural history may be its very embodiement of power.
Pope Francis has been surprisingly progressive on such issues as gay rights. But so far he’s taken the hard line on denouncing drugs. That could change if he sees that legalization is the best chance for reducing violence.
Hampered by plummeting oil prices and fading public support, President Nicolas Maduro and his crafty sidekick, Assembly leader Diosdado Cabello, are trying to provoke an opposition outburst. Last week’s arrest of Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma was a c
As a Colombian gay marriage debate illustrates, Western societies have historically despised male homosexuality more than lesbianism. Why is that?
If urban traffic jams and bustling restaurants are symptom of prosperity, long lines outside shops indicate a distorted, depressed economy. This is the current face of Venezuela’s capital.
MEDELLIN — Crimes being committed by some of Colombia’s 38,000 convicts on prison leave have become an almost “daily headache,” with some returning to a life of lawlessness despite wearing electronic tags or bracelets. The need to keep closer tabs on prisoners who have been granted leave has led two prison authority (INPEC) employees and […]
Demonizing the rich, a pastime of Colombia’s political Left, doesn’t help social progress. Yes, the rich must pay a high share of taxes, but capital and opportunity cross borders like never before.
The Netherlands, a major consumer of sustainable coffee, is helping to make production in Colombia more environmentally friendly for the benefit of grower and drinker alike.
BOGOTA — The significance of Uber goes well beyond its specific function, which is to connect willing drivers with people who need to move around in a safe, comfortable and punctual manner. The deeper message of the controversial digital application — and others like it — is in the changing way labor and service markets […]
Images are spreading of extreme cruelty to animals at the corralejas, a version of bullfighting in remote areas of Colombia. Social media can be both enemy and friend for animal rights activists.
Political repression is one thing, but if store shelves are empty, the so-called “revolution” is destined to crumble.
-OpEd- BOGOTA — Skokie is a mostly Jewish district outside of Chicago, Illinois. In 1977, the far-right National Socialist Party of America decided to organize a march there, which the scandalized residents, including thousands of Holocaust survivors, naturally sought to stop, arguing it would incite hatred and lead to violence. But the ACLU, the American […]
Uruguay shows again why it is one of the world’s most progressive countries, with the government’s recent pledge to aim to use only clean energy in the future.
To the surprise of many, the family of legendary novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez sold his personal papers to the University of Texas. It’s nothing political – but all about posterity, and money of course.
The Castro regime’s about-face to restore ties with the U.S. signals the communist economic system’s shameful failure. But politics is another matter.
Is this the rise of another Hugo Chavez for Latin America?
Despite FARC declaring a ceasefire, peace won’t come to Colombia until warring parties in decades of civil war admit to all the people they’ve kidnapped, tortured and killed.
Another so-so summit on the climate, and another set of tepid, if not useless, commitments to curb emissions. If the governments can’t get it together, the people must act on their own.
The decision by the United States and Cuba to restore diplomatic ties looks like good news for now: for Cuban families, for regional democracy and for peace in war-torn Colombia.
After opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez was jailed, the Maduro government is now targeting another political nemesis, Maria Corina Machado. The world must take notice.
Colombians seem to worship all things Anglo-American, “Miami-style” most of all. It’s a sign of our own socio-cultural shame and some appalling choices made by past governments.
BOGOTA — Authorities in Bogota are banning road and building construction across 14 square kilometers (5.4 square miles) in the Colombian capital, in a bid to create the largest urban nature reserve in Latin America. New restrictions will turn a sector of the existing Thomas van der Hammen Reserve into a “biodiversity corridor” spanning Guaymaral, […]
The U.S. President has shown a mix of political pragmatism and historic vision in pushing forward in the face of a backward-looking Congress.
The kidnapping of a Colombian general is the clearest sign that FARC guerrillas may have entered in peace talks, but have yet to give up their war mentality and false populist ideology.
-OpEd- BOGOTA — Mexico bleeds as criminal gangs kill the innocent and not-so-innocent, before the gaze of an impotent — or is it indifferent? — state apparatus. The latest victims were 43 student activists who disappeared in late September and, many believe, were shot dead and cut up by gangsters and policemen collaborating in the […]
The fact that people are buying cars is touted as a good sign for the economy, which you can think about while you’re stuck in traffic or breathing in rising pollution.
The idea of today’s neuroscientists and radical secularists that human beings are nothing more than cell matter is not only arrogant, it is a theory that is self-defeating to the core.
In its bid to root out financial corruption, China’s government is hunting down fugitive suspects from Canada to Colombia, U.S. and Australia.
-OpEd- BOGOTA — The crucial question in Brazil’s presidential elections, set for Sunday, is whether or not the country will remain the political and economic third way it has become. Will this “alternative socialism” – distinct from various offerings from both the traditional political Right and Left – keep its standing in the world established […]
Increasingly, the general American public and even anti-Castro businessmen now seem to agree that less hostility toward Cuba is the best road to take.
Carmen Tulia Ortega recently came face-to-face with a former paramilitary chief responsible for some of the deaths of her loved ones. No, she did not forgive him.
Bolivians have given Evo Morales a clear presidential mandate, a vote of approval for his political skills and the benefits of an oil-driven economy. He now must shape a legacy for the future.